OPEN: 1979–present
LOCATION: 1147 Third Street Santa Monica, CA 90403
ORIGINAL PHONE: (310) 451-0843
CUISINE: California Bistro
BUILDING STYLE: 1930s House
Michael’s on Third Street, 2011.
MICHAEL MCCARTY WAS ONLY TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OLD WHEN HE OPENED MICHAEL’S IN SANTA MONICA. He had earned degrees in French cooking, wines, and restaurant management at the Cordon Bleu, and had also studied at the Academie du Vin and the École Hôtelière de Paris. When McCarty arrived in Los Angeles, he joined the group of young chefs making a name for themselves in the city’s culinary field.
McCarty wanted Michael’s to have a sense of openness, fun, and spontaneity. For his restaurant’s location, he chose a three-bedroom house that had been built in the 1930s, just half a block from the busy Wilshire Boulevard and three blocks from the beach. He had the walls painted a creamy color and added French doors that opened out to a lush garden. Today, golden lighting enhances the ambience at Michael’s. The food is served on white china, and the staff are dressed in Ralph Lauren pastels.
The food at Michael’s is what McCarty calls “modern contemporary French, California style,” combining fresh local ingredients with French cooking methods. Michael’s was instrumental in establishing this style of cooking, along with Alice Waters’s Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California. When diners ask what McCarty’s secret is, he always gives the same answer: “The best quality and the freshest ingredients.” McCarty also claims that he was the first to bring glass bottles of Evian water to the States.
In 1978, Governor Jerry Brown signed the Direct Marketing Act, enabling farmers to sell their goods directly to consumers. Three years later, the Santa Monica Farmers Market was born, only a few short blocks from Michael’s. McCarty took full advantage of the market’s fresh ingredients and, today, has established relationships with the farmers who grow for him. Over the years, McCarty and his protégés have given many cooking demonstrations at the market.
McCarty feels that the menu at Michael’s has grown organically from his own life experiences and training. Focusing on the freshest farmers market produce, his dishes change to accommodate whatever is being sold in the local market that week. He prefers to serve his customers a progression of flavors with each course, with none of the flavors repeated.
In 1989, McCarty opened a Michael’s location in New York, with the same look and menu as the original. It was a hit. McCarty went on to open three more restaurants—Adirondacks in Washington D.C. and the Rattlesnake Club in Detroit and Denver—with his business partner, Jimmy Schmidt. McCarty also dreamed of opening a luxury hotel on the site of the Sand and Sea Club on the Pacific Coast Highway, the former location of an enormous beach house William Randolph Hearst built for his mistress, actress Marion Davies. After McCarty sank millions into the project, the Save Our Beach Committee submitted a petition to ban any beachfront hotels and restaurants larger than 2,000 feet. McCarty was crushed. He ran into a number of financial difficulties after that, including serious earthquake damage and a fire at his home in 1993. McCarty filed for bankruptcy, but soon got back on his feet.
Inside Michael’s, 1979.
The patio at Michael’s, 1979.
For over sixteen years, mobster “Whitey” Bulger lived down the street from Michael’s, in the Princess Eugenia Apartments at 1012 Third Street. Bulger and his girlfriend liked the privacy of a far corner table at the restaurant. The couple once worked up a $192 bill for a steak and lobster dinner, accompanied by foie gras, vodka highballs, and chardonnay. Bulger was on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list and always paid cash.
In 2012, McCarty renovated Michael’s, realizing that his customers in 1979 were very different from the patrons currently dining at the restaurant. He got rid of the restaurant’s white tablecloths and fine silver, and ended up saving $100,000 a year just by cutting down his laundry services and simplifying the flower arrangements. 
The opening team at Michael’s in 1979: (left to right) Jonathan Waxman, Michael McCarty, Mark Peel, and Ken Frank.
Michael McCarty with Julia Child at Michael’s.